The Daughter's Daughter
by Meronym
Summary: The story of how Pup, Bella's granddaughter, navigates her way through keeping secrets, discovering who she is and falling in love. I've made some updates, hope it's improved. Not my story, thanks to all the right people for the original story.
1. Forks High School

Pup stepped out of the car and looked at the glass doors of the new school. She had looked forward to going to school for so long, but now the urge to vomit was strong and she breathed deeply through her nose.

Her mother was pressing important words into her from the driver's seat but she did not hear them. She fixed her eyes firmly on those glass doors and pretended the swirling mass of students and activity wasn't there.

Just focus on the task at hand, Pup thought. Just walk in through the front doors, that's all you have to do… work out your next task after that.

She had not even noticed that her mother had driven away as she made her way up the steps.

Pup and her unusual family had always come back to Forks. As a young child, she had not understood the draw of the place. It was cold and wet and the biting wind kept your head down and stopped you from looking at the mountains and the trees. Pup preferred the mountains of France and the trees of Scotland, but if she was really going to choose she would stay in the warm waters of Rio where she often went with her grandparents.

It was only in the last few years that her father had explained that this place, or his reservation and the land around it was in his blood. His family had lived here forever and, if he travelled, this place would always pull him back eventually. At first, he would stay behind when we would travel due to his leadership, of sorts, on the reservation. Soon, however, he chose to travel with Pup and her Mum. He was restless when he was away, though; no matter how distracting or action packed the trip he always looked kind of itchy anywhere other than this place.

So everyone decided that it was a good time to stay put for a while and let Pup get a diploma from the same high school that her mother and grandparents had gone to. Pup had been campaigning for this for at least 4 years. She had no friends. The kids on the Res looked at her strangely, and she did understand why, but it seemed unfair that after so many years of harmony the Quileute would still be untrusting of the 'blood suckers' as they called them.

There were no children on her Mother's side of the family but for Pup and her younger brothers. At one point they had talked about Pup, Renesme, Jacob, Bella and Edward all attending as they all looked the same age but Edward had, rightly, pointed out that it would draw unwanted attention and it would not be fair to Pup to have to endure the torture of high school with her parents and grandparents. It was time for Pup to add her own graduation hat to the wall of them at the Cullen's house.

Last night Pups grandfather had tucked her in and told her again the importance of their secrets. That she should be wary of young people, of friendships but most of all, opening up to people. Pup didn't really see the point in going to a school if she couldn't make friends but she nodded and smiled at him when he kissed her forehead with his hard, cold lips.

To her amazement, Pup found that not only had she walked herself into the school but she had a map and a timetable in her hand and she was finding her way to her first class. The halls teamed with people who all had so many things to say, everyone seemed to know one another, and no one paid her any heed. Pup relaxed as she realised that it would not be hard to keep her families secrets from these people as no one would ever talk to her let along pry the true identities of her family from her lips.

First class was drama and the urge to vomit came back to her as she saw the large auditorium with students already in it with scripts in their hands, their excited chatterings echoing through the huge room. She fixed her eyes on the teacher, a sandy-haired man in grey and beige. She just needed to get to him and tell him who she was quietly, that was all.

"Pup Cullen-Black?" the room went silent as the sandy-haired teacher read her name out. "Pup? Is that your real name or your nickname?" A few people laughed and they were shot quick looks of disapproval but Pup kept her eyes fixed on the teacher.

"It's my real name, Mr Fennon." If she had been more like her younger brother Eph she would have come up with something clever to say but her brain had become a dry wasteland.

"Not to worry Pup, We've actually been working on a play this term. Have you ever done any Greek tragedy before?"

"No" He tossed a spare book at her.

"Well this is good timing, the last few weeks were the awkward trust games and today is the first read through"

Everyone, without prompting, sat cross-legged in a circle on the stage.

"Cutest. Name. Ever!" the boy to my right said putting his hand on my arm, "Your parents must be total hippies. I just got Greg which starts no conversations at no parties" He had hair that, undeniably, required time to perfect and his smile was all gums and dimples.

She wanted to say something nice back. Some kind of casual compliment that would grant her her first ally here, but Greg was shushed by Mr Fennon.

Pup had, so far, been educated by her family and her grandfather Edward was mostly in charge of literature, but she had not read this one. It was called Iphigenia in Aulis and from what Pup could pick up form the stuttered first read through from her classmates it was typical greek nonsense; Someone dishonors someone, they talk about it for hours, they make a decision to kill someone, they talk about it for hours, they make a botch job of sacrificing someone and the Gods intervene.

Pup found the whole thing to be ridiculous, these people were idiots: incapable of making clever choices and they blaming fate when everything went wrong. She had been brought up by people that believed they were pulled by forces bigger than themselves and yet they were all capable of making a well-informed, educated, democratic decision in a crisis and the people in these books were mostly kings and great heroes!

Finally, the bell went and everyone got up and filtered out.

"Where you going now Puppy?" Greg wrapped his arm around her neck.

"It's Pup. Errr, looks like Geography in East Wing" she said blushing deeply and shrinking into herself.

"Woop woop! Me too. Miss Rice is the absolute worst but she's a bit deaf so we can chat"

Greg chatted about all kinds of things that Pup didn't really understand while they walked. Bands, shops, names of apps and games that she had never heard of but she nodded along and laughed where she thought was appropriate so she didn't give herself away.

"So how come you don't go to school on the Res?" He said as if it was the first thing he had wanted to ask me but hadn't wanted to offend. Greg was right they could chat freely without reprimand and they weren't even seated at the back of the class.

"Oh, um, well I guess… I guess I'm a bit of a mix of things" Greg had no idea how true that was, "so Mum and Dad… well, Mum really, wanted me to have a more mixed upbringing"

"Coooool, so how come you've come mid-semester?" Greg leant on his hand and looked at Pup sleepily and she noticed he was wearing tinted lipgloss and maybe even mascara.

"Mmm, not sure really, we travelled over from London and my parents had all this business stuff to sort out and … I don't know really."

"London! Eeeekkk. I was going to ask about your accent."

"Like I said… bit of a mix. I'm not British but, for some reason, some of that accent stuck. Not sure why there, I've lived all over" She was not telling him anything that she shouldn't but she felt like she was trying to stand still on a trampoline while people jumped around her.

"You're an army brat, I knew it! So is Shana, you'll meet her at lunch. She's the best" He emphasized the last bit like it was etched in stone. Somehow Greg had already sewn Pup into his schedule. Pup was glad for it, though. A well manicured human shield for the horrors of starting school.

The rest of the day whizzed by and Pup quickly learned that by far the best tool in her arsenal were questions. It made people talk a lot and stopped questions being fired at her.

Shana was a curvy, acerbic redhead with fake tan lines and something to say about everyone. She did not take to Pup as quickly as Greg had but by the end of the day Shana had invited Pup to some kind of social gathering at the weekend, which had made Greg pogo on the spot and squeal with delight.

By the end of the day, Pup was more than ready to go home and unpack all of this new information for anyone that would listen. She couldn't even hear her new friends chattering after the final bell went she just headed for those glass doors and looked about wildly for her Mum's car. Mum would definitely laugh at her the moment she got in the car. Greg had attacked her at lunch with makeup and Shana had done something strange with her hair…. Something about looking just like someone from a movie.

The parking lot was a mass of people getting in cars and hitching rides with friends and filtering onto buses but the familiar black Jeep was nowhere to be seen. Pup's new friends fussed her goodbye and left. She sat on the wall by the entrance and distracted herself with her new textbooks but her ears burned and a churning feeling rose in her stomach. She was by no means alone; there were still people socializing and the sound of the people on the sports fields but something felt very wrong.

Pup knew that she was unremarkable. She was not a sad girl, not inclined to moodiness or wallowing like other people her age but she did understand that all the people she grew up with had an abundance of gifts. Her mother was a communicator, she could make herself and others understood to anyone, she was a diplomat and brought patience and warmth to any disagreement or strife. Dad, well Dad was a werewolf. He was alpha wolf in his community. He was strong: a warrior. Everyone that knew her respected my grandmother Bella. She carried a presence with her of someone who was responsible for everyone's well-being. My Grandfather Edward could read minds and is faster than any other vampire she had met. Together they were like one being, they moved in sync and were rarely apart from one another. Pup always thought they were like a two person school of fish. Even her brothers were more remarkable than her. They were born in wolf form and only phased into human shape at the age of 18 months. But Pup was just a girl. She didn't have the amber eyes that the Cullens had nor were they the deep brown of any of the guys on her father's side of the family. They were grey, just grey. She wasn't strong, or fast, or witty or agile. She was just… Pup. Her biggest fear was that she would always be this way. After all, she was the first part human, part Vampire, part wolf that had ever existed so there was no manual to go to for unremarkable offspring.

A screech of rubber on tarmac snapped her out of her thoughts and she saw her father's motorbike speed up and skid to a halt in front of her. Jacob pulled his helmet from the box on the back of his bike and hurled it at her.

"Get on Pup, we have to go"

"What's happened?" Pup had never seen fear in her father's eyes and it froze her to her core. Jacob looked around as if there were people in the trees surrounding the lot then he looked back at her in irritation that she was still not on the bike.

"NOW!"


	2. Recognition

The rain was soft today. That soft mist that you hardly see, but on the bike with Dad Pup hair was soon drenched and stuck to her face. She has tried to ask what the problem was as they sped along but he hadn't answered and she knew that he had heard her so she kept quiet and waited to get back to the house.

The mist had drawn in over the landscape giving only glimpses of the mountains that surrounded Forks. It was typical for Forks, the only redeeming feature of this place was it's beauty and the weather hid it from view at every given opportunity.

As they moved from the town to the more empty roads that weaved through the forest, she spied her two brothers Eph and Charl galloping with playful elation through the trees alongside the bike. They loved testing their speed. Jacob shot them a look of admonishment that sent them whining into the thicket.

Her mind was racing with the reasons for her Dad's stress. Ordinarily, when in public her family tried to seem 'normal' so he wouldn't have picked her up on the bike, and he certainly would have popped a helmet on her. Not that he needed it, his reflexes and strength meant that an accident was almost impossible, let alone an injury from an accident but, in public, he would do his best to look like we were all just a bunch of friends abiding by rules and norms as much as possible. Today, he had screeched up to the school and barked the order for Pup to get on and sped off in front of her new friends who were all very alarmed.

It was rare that accidents happened in her family. The werewolves fought occasionally but even the roughest of disputes healed quickly. The Vampires on my Mothers side were pretty unbreakable so it was unlikely to be that. I had heard stories of other families having to move very suddenly because they had lost control and killed someone local. These days, with technology, it was harder and harder just to move away and not be tracked down. We did have some new additions to the Cullen family so it was always possible that they had not managed to keep everything in check.

Pup wondered where they might be going next. It was too close to the years they spent in London so not there. This would also be a problem for Tuscany and Japan. As she considered this her stomach started to knot with anger. She would move again and, no doubt there would be some reason why she should refrain from starting school again. She had been through the awkwardness of today for nothing – Why? Because someone had no self-control!

The bike came to such an abrupt halt outside the house that Pup nearly went head over heals onto the dirt. Mum was already approaching telling me to get in.

'Wait! Is anyone going to explain what happened? Are we leaving again? We only just got here! And is no one going to ask me how MY FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL WAS?!' Mum looked at Dad with a mixture of pity and frustration for a second and then grabbed my wrist and started to tug for me to come inside while she let her talent of showing people events with her mind take effect.

I saw Bella driving through forks with the window down and the wind blowing in her hair. I saw My Grandfather in the passenger seat gazing at her. They looked happy. I had noticed a small change in them since they had been back here: The most microscopic of changes in their behavior. Mostly, it made them behave like they were when they met each other for the first time all over again. Something about passing all the spots where they first experienced each other that refreshed their feelings. It was pretty hard to bear. Also, Bella seemed different, in a different way. Like she was always flinching. There were not many people left here that would recognize her but it was like the ghosts of her human life were always catching her out. In the vision though she looked relaxed and happy as she always did. They pulled up at some lights and Edward started flicking through some channels on the radio. Bella looked out of the side window and came face to face with a very elderly lady in the car next to them. The elderly lady had her mouth wide open and an arthritic finger already pointing back at Bella. It was like she was trying to say something but nothing would come out. Bella and Edward exchanged looks, they rarely needed to speak out loud to one another but, for some reason, they both said one word to each other simultaneously.

"Angela"

The elderly lady was winding down her window to talk to them when the lights change and Bella's car sped off.

By the time Mum had shown me all of this we were in my room and Mum was piling up clothes for me to pack.

"But, wait, why do we need to go? One old lady? Who cares?" Mum continued to pack. "Mum, stop. Can you even tell me where we are going? Mum?"

Renesmee quickly and showed Pup the house in Mumbai.

"Mum, use your words, for goodness sake. I want to talk about this a bit before we go racing off"

"I'm afraid we don't have very much time, my Darling" Pup swung round to find Esme at the door. "Angela used to go to school with Bella and Edward and I'm afraid Angela's inquisitive mind has been problematic for us in the past. A few times, in the years since Bella turned, Angela has done some digging and nearly found out too much. She had moved to San Francisco for most of her life but we now realize that she has moved back to Forks for her retirement. The moment she saw Bella and Edward she drove to Mike and Jessica's house and is now on her way here to confirm her suspicions with them. She doesn't know about Bella and Edward's cottage but she came here for their wedding so she will come here so it needs to be empty of all of our stuff and appear to be inhabited by new people.

Indeed she hadn't noticed before but once she stepped back into the hallway she could see that the house was a blur of vampires removing artwork and pictures from the walls and moving furniture. It was like being in the eye of a storm: A silent tornado that was about to uproot her again. She stepped

"No"

Mum stopped and looked at me. Pup stood in the doorway. Her heart was thumping, it was they first time she had ever defied anyone.

"No"

"Pup? You know they rules. They can't know anything about our secrets for their safety as well as ours."

"This Angela lady doesn't know me… they don't even know you. I don't need to go anywhere. I have just started school and, while it was less fun and more like a marathon than I thought I want to see it through." The tornado started to slow as the rest of the family listened to this.

"Actually, she does know your father so too many of us would need to separate. No. Pup, you're coming with us and that is final."

"NO!" She could feel her voice rising into desperate tones. Pup wanted to keep her voice at a level that sounded like someone who was in control. "I understand the risk but I am no danger at all… why do you all get your Forks graduation caps and not me?" Now everyone was still. Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, Renesmee, Jacob, Rosalie, Maude and Duncan all rooted to the spot. Pup couldn't quite believe what she was doing as the words came out of her mouth.

"I want a human experience. You were going to give me my human experience. I can't have it taken away now."

"She's nearly here we need to go" Alice urged. Mum looked like I'd plunged my hand straight through her chest, she knew Pup had a point, she knew that no amount of privilege and international diversity could replace the rite of passage she has so far been denied.

"I know we always move together but she doesn't know who we are. Please, please. I can stay."

"Not on you own, you can't" Jacob pushes his way into my room.

"She doesn't have to be alone," Renesmee said to him gently.

"I can't believe you would be ok with this, Nessy"

"I'm not, but she does have a point. We made her a promise and we have to stand by that. Besides, there will be a whole pack of wolves watching her every move just like they did for me."

"Guys, whatever you are going to do you have to make a decision now!" Alice insisted.

"Well, Eph and Charl aren't in school so they're coming. She knows most of us. Nessy, you could stay, as could Duncan and Maude…" Jacob knew that was enough to cement the decision. Duncan and Maude were newer to the Cullan family but loved and trusted by everyone they came into contact with them, even the pack took to them quickly. They were all the more perfect by looking closer to the age of parents to me.

In a second the tornado was a flurry again. Pup stood still again, her stomach wringing it's self round inside her. She had never been parted from her mother or father before and being away from them made high school so much more frightening but she felt triumphant and grateful at being given the only thing she had ever really asked for. She sat down on the bed and watched everyone go through the drill they all knew well.

Before she knew it the house was striped and rearranged and the cars were all packed up. Jacob was talking rapidly into Duncan's ear, who looked like a bomb had gone off in his head and Maude was discussing with Carlisle the logistics of the encounter that was about to happen with Angela.

"I can't believe you are going to go through High School for the first time without me. I was looking forward to it almost as much as you were" Renesme hugged her daughter closely.

"It doesn't need to be long I can come to India and be with you for the holidays and I'll call all the time" Pup fought back the tears so no one had any excuse to change their mind.

There was no time to hug everyone and soon she was left with Duncan and Maude and the doorbell ringing over and over again.

With her head spinning they met their accusers.

"Yes?" Duncan stepped out onto the porch, stooping a little so as not to intimidate the three people, all in their eighties. There was a brief pause while the woman in front of the rest searched for how to handle her questioning.

"I was wondering if Bella and Edward were home, please" She finally found with a clumsy air of defiance.

"There is no one here by that name, can I help you with anything?" Duncan's warm Scottish voice had a way of melting everyone's heart.

The main woman, who Pup took to be Angela, was lost again. There was a sea of awkwardness before the older man came out with.

"I'm so sorry for this, my friend here used to know someone who lived here and I'm afraid she might be having, what we like to call, a 'senior moment'. My name is Mike Newton. Did you know any of the previous owners of this house?" The man reached his thin hand out which was quickly enveloped by Duncan's enormous Paw like hand and shaken vigorously.

"I'm afraid not, I'd love to chat to them myself all these bloody windows makes it a nightmare to heat…" He laughed a loud guffaw and sat on the bench on the porch. Pup laughed inwardly at the idea that the house would even have radiators. Keeping it's inhabitants warm had never been part of the design.

"I **know** I saw her! Where else would she be but here…?" Mike tried to shush her. The third woman behind was keeping very quiet, she seemed mortified with the proceedings. Angela stood her ground and looked through us to the house behind. I could see that she wasn't going anywhere.

"Would you like to come in? We're quite new and it would be nice to talk to our neighbors about the area..?" Duncan looked at me like I'd just pulled the ring on a grenade at a garden party. Pup let the question hang for a second, it would be extremely difficult to pull off any time with them inside the house but it could just be the thing that throws her off the scent. "Are you tea or coffee drinkers?"

"Oh no, don't trouble yourselves. Honestly, we aren't really neighbours, we live on the opposite side of town. Angela, come on, let me drive you home." Mike encouraged the reluctant Angela back to the car and they drove away.

Elated with our small victory we chirruped away to one another while Pup made herself a well-earned cup of tea. Duncan and Maude were still going when she sat down at the long dining table to start her geography homework.

People in her family loved very deeply, that was for sure, and Duncan and Maude were no exception. Duncan was quite an old Vampire; he had been a monk in Scotland when a Viking raid decimated his monastery in the middle of the 8th century. Though he hid from the terrifying attack he was dragged from behind a pew and bitten right there by the alter. So many where killed right out but Duncan was kept to continue the bloodshed and so he raided and raided with the Vikings and finally settled in the Highlands. He was happy enough but he was glad to put his skills to a cause when Wars broke out. He was always happy to join a side but it was the Jacobite Rebellions that brought him Maude. He had found her dying in the wreckage of an English encampment and he turned her immediately. They had never spent a day apart in 400 hundred years. Maude was the most beautiful vampire Pup had ever seen she looked like the characters from Pre-Raphaelite painting Pup had seen. She had long strawberry blond hair that curled at the ends, large eyes and refined features. She glided more than walked and she seemed to bring laughter everywhere she went. The moment she walked into a room the air seems to fizz a little in anticipation. These were their respective gifts; they were both mood manipulators of sorts. Duncan was a great persuader as he could make anyone like him and Maude brought passion and joy where ever she went.

Pup sighed as she watched her new faux parents, no one would believe that they were actually related Pup with her burnt caramel skin, grey eyes and general plainness… she would need to shift her story a little at school.

Being used to a full family house she already felt very alone. Alone but excited for tomorrow.


	3. The don't-call-it-a-party

"Puppy, you sweet jar of salted caramel frappawhatsitchino, get over here we have important things to discuss!"

Greg loved to do this. The more public the better, like some mortifying statement of conspiracy he would call Pup over. Today it was the benches outside where Pup, and the rest of the school, had taken to eating lunch while the weather was half way good. Pup sat with her tray and tried to make herself as small as possible. Shana was furiously swiping on her tablet, a deep furrow on her brow.

This was Pup's fifth day at Forks High School and her fourth day without her family. Right now the whirlwind that was her new best friends Greg and Shana were much welcomed.

"Sha is freaking over what to wear tonight." He said, nudging Shana.

"I am not, I don't care, it's not like that, it's super casual but none of my clothes fit me anymore and if Mum shops for me I'll look like something from the Disney Network." Seeing Shana in the sunlight today Pup noticed how freckly she was under her makeup, her red hair was piled on top of her head in a bun with carefully orchestrated strands pried loose. These last few days she had marvelled at how these two people had welcomed her into their lives. She was not like them at all, to be honest, the only thing that Greg and Shana had in common was the consumption of pop culture and a pining for good fashion, but Pup didn't know or care at all about either of those things and yet they had adopted her as their own.

"I forgot about the party tonight…." Before Pup could finish Shana had leaped on her.

"Shut up 'party'! Where are you from!? It isn't a 'party', please don't say that word – it's so lame. It's just people hanging out. You are coming to mine after school aren't you? We have to get ready together."

"I can get ready with you but I have to go home first, is that ok? Sorry, I can't shop with you?"

"That's alright, I have Greg for that"

This 'hang' was being hosted by a guy she shared a few classes with but didn't know yet whose name was Oscar. He wore stuff that people talked about a lot and was great with technology of all kinds and to Pup felt like he excelled at being a teenage boy. She also noticed that Shana looked at him a lot.

"You look great in everything, Shana, you could go and buy a roll of bin liners and have something good to wear"

"Aw, listen to the Brit with her bin liners, we call them trash bags here, but thanks, you big old lesbo, I'll save you a dance…"

"But first… we must away to the theatre." Greg interrupted with suitably dramatic voice.

Pup dreaded drama class. So far it was a combination of stomach-shredding humiliation and the frustrating subject matter of the play they were studying – Iphigenia in Aulis or 'Iphers' as the teacher Mr Fennon called it. If she wasn't being forced to do embarrassing facial expressions or noises or TRUST FALLS she was being subjected to a two thousand-year-old story about how thoughtless and bullish a father can be to a daughter. It made her wish that everyone's parent had the ability to imprint. Pup had noted that most people who did bad things blamed their parents so imprinting really would solve quite a few world problems.

Duncan picked Pup up after school and the grilling started straight away.

"OK, what do I do?"

"You're a consultant?"

"Of what?"

"No one ever asks"

"What does your mother do?"

"She's a bored Mum that makes stuff for her Etsy shop"

"What else?"

"I don't know, that I get my skin colour from my grandmother but, for some reason skipped my mother and I should play down how much I've travelled?"

"No. Well yes, but the most important thing is deflection. Don't get bogged down in coming up with a back story just change the subject"

"Thanks, Duncan"

"We might need to get used to the 'Dad' thing"

"Nah, it's like a To Kill a Mockingbird thing, isn't it?"

"Sure thing, Pup, you're the boss"

There it was again. That shadow that Pup knew so well in the vampire side of her family; that moment that she had observed so well in the Cullens. That hint of envy or maybe sadness, it was subtle and brief and always followed by momentary guilt but it was undeniable. Vampires could love; deeply and enduringly, but they could never reproduce. However long they lived they couldn't shake that deeply human need to create life with the person they loved the most. No one would ever resent Bella or Edward or Pup's Mum and Dad - Renesme and Jacob, after all, they had suffered so deeply for the privilege and it wasn't like any of this had been planned, but nonetheless that faint and brief shadow of envy was there.

By the time they got back Maude had set up skype for the list of check-in's Pup had to do with the rest of my family. The enormous fuss that was being made of this 'gathering' was starting to make Pup's head swim.

"I chat to all these people all day, tonight isn't going to be any different" Pup said to her parent's faces on the laptop screen.

"People are going to want to get to know you, Pup, you have to have your guard up… but not so up that you don't, you know, make any friends", Dad had never struggled to make friends, he had a kind of effortless charm that made even the people that hated him want to be his friend. He looked nervous for Pup though and it wasn't helping her churning stomach. Renesmee looked strange, Pup thought; far away, haunted even.

"You ok, Mum?" She smiled weakly and nodded.

"Your Mom just misses you, Pup, we all do. Have fun tonight, now go and get ready I know Alice is waiting to get photos of what you're wearing"

"Dear God, Dad, this isn't the Met Ball. I'll probably just go in this." There was an immediate beep on Pups phone and the text from Alice read 'OVER MY COLD DEAD BODY!'

Duncan brought a sandwich to his new ward and then hovered by the door watching Pup negotiate with Alice via text.

"You know if you want the real teenage human experience - you've got to have some secrets from your parents."

"More secrets? Besides, I **am** a teenage human." Duncan looked suddenly off balance like he had suddenly been shifted into a dangerous conversation by mistake.

"Just because the full extent of who you are hasn't shown itself yet doesn't mean you should settle for thinking you're all human." He stumbled out. Maude glided up behind him.

"Would it bother you if you were human… no super… anything?"

Pup stopped. This was the very question that had swum around in her head for years and years; the elephant in the room that no one ever talked about.

"I see that the more different you are the less you can be part of the human world but… I don't know… everyone I love is so … special"

Pup shrugged and sent a picture of what she was wearing to Alice. Before she knew it she was in the middle of a rather cool suffocating embrace from her new fake parents.

"Och, don't be daft, you're the most special girl I ever met, Pup, don't you forget it!" Duncan's deep Scottish voice demanded.

By the time they arrived at Oscar's house Pup had experienced an hour of hair and makeup at the hands of Shana. In fact, Pup had to fight for any say in how she looked tonight. After much debate, Alice had compromised on some denim shorts and an oversized cami that felt, to Pup, like she was wearing a large woman's undergarments. Shana had had three failed attempts at doing Pup's make up. In the end, she gave up completely on trying to find any foundation that matched her skin and settled on a deep lipstick and, what felt like seven thousand layers, of mascara. Pup felt deeply uncomfortable but Greg and Shana had made such a fuss about the overall look that she decided to just endure it for the evening.

She had expected a run of the mill, expensive looking house but Oscar's house was a little out of the way and humble. Most people were outback where there were string lights, candles and a bonfire. It felt a lot like the evenings she had spent with the Quileute, telling stories, except for the music and no adults.

Pup chewed nervously on the rim of a red plastic cup while she watched Greg and Shana dance wildly in the patio. She wasn't sure what she had expected but enjoying this evening was going to require a social bravery that Pup did not have. She could tell that people were talking about her from the looks she was getting from the clusters of people around the fire so Pup had secreted herself in a shadowy corner to observe and, hopefully, be forgotten so she could slip away early.

"Not into dancing?" Oscar sidled up to her with a bowl of, what looked like, Doritos and offered them to Pup. She shook her head.

"Thanks for having me", mumbled Pup and instantly regretted it. Oscar laughed.

"Alright Jane Austen, you're very welcome. Listen, you're kind of the talk of the night. No one really knows anything about you and then you turn up tonight looking like an Instagram girl… the suspense is too much, come and talk to us"

"I don't look…" she stumbled out but Oscar had already walked away, beckoning for her to follow.

She had only taken three steps towards the bonfire when it was like a grenade had gone off in her head. She stood stock still for a moment trying to work out what had just happened. A breeze had brought the smell of the fire, but there was something else as well, a smell so strong that it left a ringing in Pup's ears. What was it? It didn't really smell like anything she had smelt before but it was also so familiar. Maybe, green peppers? Cut Grass? Wet stone? Whatever it was it was immobilizing and left Pup gasping for breath.

"You ok, Pup?" Oscar looked at her and then grabbed her hand and dragged her to the logs people were sitting on round the fire. No one else was reacting to, what felt like a sledgehammer to the face to Pup, so she did everything she could to pretend nothing had happened but she looked around madly to find the source of that smell. She sat on a tree stump and looked around at the people Oscar was introducing her to. She wasn't listening to any of the names but they were all smiling at her.

"Someone told me you live in this mansion in the woods," Said someone from across the fire.

"Not a mansion, no but it is pretty remote" Pup's stomach felt strange like she was suddenly ravenous and her mouth felt chalky. She gulped down some more of her drink.

"Your folks outdoorsy?" Came another voice.

"You could say that" Pup knew she needed to get a grip or she would start replying to these questions in a way that would get her in trouble.

"Did I see a dead Christmas tree at the end of your garden, Oscar?"

"Ha, yeah, my folks are so lazy they still haven't chipped it"

"You could put it on the fire and it'd smell all Christmassy" Some people jumped up and started dragging the brown, crispy tree to the fire. Everyone agreed that the smell of Christmas was the best even if it was early June. Pup, breathed through her mouth and hoped that the burning pine would help her not to pass out from this strange smell that was like an IED inside her.

"Wow, I think I got about 10 needles stuck in the palms of my hands," This was it. Whoever had just plopped themselves down next to Pup had brought that smell with them. She took a handful of her long, black hair and covered her nose and mouth with it - a makeshift gas mask - stared at her Converse intently, frightened to look up. "Great, and now I have smoke in my eyes so I can't even see… could you help me out here?"

Without looking up Pup turned and grabbed the hands of the person to her side, inspecting them for pine needles. They were fair, freckly and male and as she peered closely at them she was hit again. It was like a strong wind rolling off the ocean in Rio but also like that first day of the year when the trees begin to bud.

"Oh god." Pup made a dash for it. That smell made her whole body vibrate and it felt dangerous like she might hurt someone. She had never felt like that before. What is this? Pup thought. Is this thirst, or anger? Why does it feel like a sickness and an emotion?

When she looked up again she found she was gripping onto the side of the drinks table. Pup stuffed a fistful of Doritos into her mouth and washed it down with lemonade from the bottle.

"Wooh, Babe, haha what the..? Pour it into a glass at least. If you'd stop stuffing your face like a pig for a second I want to introduce you to my cousin, Finley."

Pup whirled round and there was Shana standing next to a tall, freckly boy with messy hair – and that smell.

"I'd shake your hand but… you know… ow." He showed her the palms with pinpricks in them.

"Sorry, I just…"

"You don't need to explain… well, except that it looked a bit like you ran away from me because I smelled like five-day old garbage juice"

"Rude!" Shana said laughing, "But it is a well-known fact that boys are all stinky. Pup, Finley is joining us at school as of next week. I promised to introduce him to some people so his first day would be so scary." And with that Shana skipped off, wailing something about this 'being her jam'. Pup couldn't take her eyes off him, it was like the world swirled around them but he stayed in focus.

"D'you get them out?"

"huh?"

"The needles?"

"Oh, yeah, I think so" He stepped closer to her and showed her his hands. It felt to Pup like she was toe to toe with a cliff edge. She breathed through her mouth, but it hardly helped, it was like she could taste it on her tongue. Taking his hands was like curling her toes over that cliff edge but she did and, this time, it brought a surge of warmth that spread through her body.

"There might be dirt in them." She bit her lip. Could he tell? Did he know? Pup didn't know whether to run away or plunge her fist into his chest and rip his heart out while it was still pumping.

"We should clean it up." She looked up, the light from the fire danced across his face, he was smiling. That smile felt like blood in the water to a shark. How, though? Pup wasn't a vampire, or a werewolf or… anything, she couldn't even do ten push ups! What danger could she possibly be to anyone? She told herself she was being ridiculous and they walked into the house.

He washed his hands in the sink or the bathroom while Pup raided the cabinets for antiseptic.

"Shana tells me you're new as well?" Pup nodded. "Well, from one noob to another, what do I need to know?"

"Can't complain, so far… but, it's only been one week" She dowsed some cotton with antiseptic and started dabbing, bits of loose cotton got caught on his palms. "I think… I think I making a mess of this. Sorry"

"That's alright, not only does it sting like hell but I think you might be making me cotton ball mittens!" He chuckled and Pup felt some of his breath on her face. It was too much. Couldn't he sense she was standing on the cliff edge and any breeze would send her tumbling down the precipice? She stepped back, swaying under the weight of the sickness this boy had inflicted on her. Her face felt hot and her lips numb, she reached out to lean on the basin but she had misjudged and she fell.

Black.

The next thing she knew she was looking at Greg, Shana and Finley's worried faces.

"Puppy, what happened?" Greg handed her a cup of lukewarm water.

"Oh no, I'm so embarrassed" Pup sat up in the bed of what she had to assume was Iscars bedroom. Her head throbbed.

"Wooh, you hit your head on the way down, careful." Finley put his hand on her arm, encouraging her to relax. Pup snatched it away – fearful anymore contact from this harbinger of head bombs might send her into total meltdown. "Sorry." Hurt soaked through his face. Pup noticed his eyes were pale blue, not far from her grey but large and soft and, now, sad.

"I'll drive you home." Shana wasn't stupid, she could see there was something going on and no doubt she wanted the low down on the way home. "Your phone suddenly went nuts by the way. Like twenty missed calls. You might want to check it."

Before Pup could look at her phone there was a commotion coming from the front of the house. Duncan burst into the room.

"What the… What happened!" In a dangerously fast movement Duncan scooped Pup from the bed and started carrying her out.

A moment later and they were driving away in his Jeep.

"Are you drunk?"

"No."

"Drugs?"

"NO!"

"Can you cover that cut, I'm finding it a bit … distracting" Duncan was white-knuckling the steering wheel.

"Sorry, Duncan, there really wasn't any need for any of this I just fainted or something."

"Well, whatever happened, Alice saw something pretty big and she called for an... Evacuation."

Pup had no idea what that meant. She had no idea what prophecy Alice had had but she had to find out what happen to her tonight. Whatever it was, she knew something had changed inside her, irrevocably.


	4. Family Meeting

"You're half … Werewolf, Pup, it messes with my abilities," Alice nearly said 'mutt' but stopped herself. She sparkled in the Indian sunshine, which made Pup's laptop look like a glitterball. As she watched her Great Aunt through Skype she wondered why they even had a house in Mumbai when they could rarely go out during the day.

"What did you see?"

"Jacob told me not to tell you."

"Alice, please."

"No, it's not forever but they are on their way, Bella and Edward, too, and they want to discuss it with you in person."

"Urgh! How long will that be?"

"Well, they got on a plane the moment I had a vision but that takes hours so not till the afternoon. Sorry, Sweetie. Your brothers are staying her with us"

Pup sighed. "It's not like I had much planned today anyway."

Homework was no distraction from what had happened at last night's party. Pup moved about the house like a zombie. Her room was apparently one that her Grandfather, Edward, used before he and Bella moved into the cottage and she loved it. It was light and airy and had the most beautiful view in the house that looked out over the tops of the trees and you could glimpse at the mountains. When the weather was bad the windows were a swirl of grey and green and on the rare occasion that the weather was good Mother Nature seemed to dance for Pup through the glass.

But today even the tall trees and mountains couldn't claim back the thoughts in Pup's mind.

Her phone went. It had been buzzing all morning. Mostly from Greg and Shana on group chat.

**Greg - Puppy, you scared us last night, how r u today? Don't tell me that beautiful brown head of urs is broken 4 ever.**

**Shana - Babe, what happened? Fin just said you fainted but he's been going on about how he must've offended u and how u hate him for some reason blah blah.**

**Pup - No no. I don't hate him. I'm just a clumsy flake who fell over. Please tell him not to worry.**

**Shana - Sure thing but he's trying to get your address off me so he can apologise in person...**

**Pup - NO! God no! I'm having a family day today and Duncan is feeling a bit overprotective.**

**Shana - Sure thing, Babe.**

Pup shuddered at the thought of Finley turning up and being met by the most protective family ever to walk the planet.

Just conjuring his face made her clench her fists. She remembered the shape of his face when he smiled at her, how woozy she felt looking up into his eyes as the flames lit his smiling face, the breath on her when he laughed. Pup realised she had stopped breathing.

That's it, she thought, I need some fresh air. Without forethought or a pause, she leaped from her bed and in two steps was across the room and flying from the balcony to the nearest tree.

Crouching from the branch like a monkey Pup looked back. It had to have been a good eight meters that she had just jumped. She looked down and saw the ground, several stories down. How had she done that? The forest spun around her and vertigo kicked in, toppling her from the branch.

As she fell through the air Pup looked up at the sky through the trees and it was as if time stood still. She looked around and noticed that as she fell the world moved past her very slowly. In her mind she saw time stretch out before her - she saw herself smack hard into a branch and it snapped under her weight sending her body spinning before hitting the ground with a sickening thud... and then she snapped back and she was still falling, still looking about her as the slowness of time. She turned her body, missing the branch and landed, like a cat on all fours on the ground.

Duncan and Maude were in the living room reading when a tear stained Pup staggered back into the house.

"What's happening to me?"

* * *

Pup had tried her best to explain what had happened on the tree so many times by the time the rest of the family turned up but Duncan and Maude looked as confused and out of their depth as ever as ever. Renesmee sprinted from the car, bounded up the steps and into the house, pulling Pup into a tight embrace.

"I'm sorry Mum, I didn't mean to worry you."

"Tell us what happened" Jacob cut in for his hug, lifting Pup from her feet as he always did.

"I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. I've tried to talk to them about it..." Jacob and Renesmee looked at Duncan and Maude who were in a state of shell-shock and just shrugged. "This is going to sound so weird but I can't help but to think that something I smelled last night has triggered something in me..." There was a silence. Edward and Bella came in with luggage. "One minute everything was normal and the next... maybe it was a brain seizure or something. Can a smell trigger a brain seizure?"

"No, not that I know of. I wish Carlisle was here to help, though, he'd be the person to make the best guess," said Edward pressing his cold hand to Pup's forehead.

"And today?" Jacob pushed.

"Yeah, um, I don't know but I jumped really far and then something weird happened when I fell off the tree."

"Edward, can you translate for us?" Jacob was getting impatient with his daughter's lack of vocabulary. Pup dutifully brought the events to life in her head for Edward to read.

"It's not like anything I've seen before. Precognition? Time disturbance? It was like she wanted to be outside and her body took her there without her consciously doing it. It was a good jump, too, Olympic by human standards. Then when she fell it's like time slowed down and she saw into the future, just a fraction, enough for her to prevent herself getting hurt." A stunned silence followed. "The fall would have killed her" No one moved or spoke for some time.

"We'll figure it out. No stress, ok? Do you think you could do it again?" Renesmee slapped her husband's arm.

"I know you aren't telling our daughter to jump out of a window!"

"No! But if my baby girl had some cool new powers I want to see them!" He replied, rubbing his hands gleefully.

"I have no idea how I did them, I really wouldn't know how to try and replicate them."

Renesmee opened the fridge and started to make a sandwich for Pup, on autopilot. "Well, one thing's for sure, we'll pull you out of school and go back to the way things were while we work out what's going on."

"No! Mum, no. I'm fine. Please, you promised! You all... we all agreed." Pup couldn't believe it.

"I don't know, Pup, we have no idea what's going on, we don't even know if you could be a danger to the students and your friends." Pup thought it was so typical of Edward to take that stance.

"Wait guys, so far she hasn't hurt anyone or even any powers or symptoms that could harm anyone. She's the most careful, sensible person I know. I say if she wants to stay we trust her." Pup couldn't have loved her father more in that moment.

"Are you forgetting what Alice saw?" Renesmee's voice wobbled.

"What did she see?"

"Alice saw something that might never happen, we've proved it time and again that the future can change." Before Pup could prod Bella any further her grandmother deflected, "We made a promise to Pup, it would be wrong to break that promise when she has only shown good judgement her whole life." Renesmee looked terrified and crushed to have been over-ruled by her husband and her mother. Pup could see something was not right with Renesmee and hadn't been since she left five days ago but she would have to open that can of worms another time.

She dutifully ate her sandwich and talked to her family for the next few hours, soaking in the feeling of safety that came from a full house of Cullens and her parents. The sun had long since set when Bella and Edward disappeared off to their cottage and Jacob went to the Res. Pup's Mother stayed but vanished into the library. Pup left Maude and Duncan softly singing old folk songs to each other and lay down in her room. She was exhausted but just as her eyes were drooping her phone pinged again from an unknown number.

**Hi Pup, It's Finley here, Shana's cousin, I hope you don't mind, I bullied her into giving me your number so I could say sorry if I offended you or something last night.**

Pup held her breath. The message hung over her for a few moments. Why am I being so weird? She thought. It isn't his fault, it probably would have happened anyway. He's only being nice.

**Pup - No need to be sorry, I'm so embarrassed I fainted.**

**Finley - Yeah, no one's fainted since, like, fans and corsets were in fashion.**

There was a pause. Pup stared at the messages. She started to feel like she was back on the cliff edge again teetering on the brink of disaster. Then, it was almost like her fingers typed for her, though part of her knew exactly what she was doing -

**Pup - Do you want to meet tomorrow?**

It was sent. No going back now. She wanted to know him, to smell him again, to understand better the power he had over her. The wait for his reply was agony.

**Finley - Yes!**

And with that Pup leaped into the terrifying unknown.


	5. rendezvous

"Have you any idea how dangerous that was?!" Edward looked like he might hurl Pup across the room. "And to think Bella made a case for you based on your good judgement!"

Pup sat at the dining room table swimming in a shame. That left her mute.

"Sneaking about like that? Pup, this isn't you at all. This isn't just your secret to keep. Our family secrets protect all of us; Vampire, werewolf, human and everything in-between. I thought you understood that. What on earth possessed you to do this?"

Tears rolled down her cheeks, how could she make them understand?

Pup organised to meet Finley at the big park in Forks that backed into the forest and National Park. She would have to get out of the house early before Edward might come back to the house and read her mind. Though he could read minds from anywhere he generally made it a rule to leave family be at certain times, it was a big risk though, if he decided to do a 'check in' to get more insight into how she was feeling, the jig would be up.

That night she dreamt about falling. Falling from trees, falling from a cliff edge, falling in bathrooms. Each time it was the same - she would see the world rush past, feel a lurch in her stomach and then be caught at the last moment by a pale, faceless figure.

When she woke she found her mother Renesmee sleeping next to her on top of the covers. She looked exhausted and drained. She had to be out soon to meet Finley and she hadn't planned for having to sneak past her mother like this. It made the deception worse. She had never lied to her family before, it had never even occurred to her. But, however she looked at it, she needed to do this alone. Even if they allowed her to meet this mysterious guy they would, no doubt, make it a controlled environment with **everyone** present for safety. Goodness only knows what he would think. No, she knew she had to do this on her own without the watchful eye of her family. Until a week ago, Pup hadn't spent all of her seventeen years happily inhabiting her family bubble, travelling the world and loving every minute of the microcosm that was her supernatural, blended family. The only thing she had ever wanted outside of it was the trial by fire that was high school. Now, though, Pup felt pulled by a different force something that came from within her; a tide that she could not deny or compromise.

After carefully creeping out of her bedroom she came across Duncan and Maude downstairs.

"Hey Pup, how are you feeling today?" Duncan lobbed an apple her way.

"I'm good, thanks. I have to zip into town, Shana has a book for me, I was feeling behind in Biology so she is giving me a textbook so I can catch up" Was this too much detail, would they see through her?

"Right, how long do you think you'll be? No doubt we'll be working how to play things from here and there will be more family meetings."

"Not long, Shana and Greg have been a bit worried so I thought I'd grab the book and have a juice with them in town and then come back. I have my phone in case you need me, can I borrow your car, Duncan?" Pup said all of this as she backed out of the door, doing her best to be breezy and casual as she took the Jeep keys from the hook. Duncan nodded.

"Wait!" Pup froze. Maude swept up to her and hugged her tightly. "I just needed to do that. We love you, little Pup, and we feel terrible that this happened on our watch." She smoothed some of Pup's unruly black hair behind her ear and straightened her coat collar for her. "Now off you go, and be back soon, we'll make something tasty to make the family chats a little sweeter."

If Pup hadn't felt wretched before she surely did now. "Duncan's macaroons make everything ok." And with that, she slid out of the door and into the Jeep.

"Here, I got you one of these fruity iced things from the coffee shop. I don't know if you drink them." She had smelt Finley before he got into the park and had braced herself for it. It wasn't much easier than the first meeting. She took the garish coloured drink from him and tried to ignore the vibrating in her head.

"Oh, thanks." They both sipped their drinks.

"So, I know I've said it a million time already but..."

"You really, really don't need to say sorry. I'm sorry if you got a grilling from people. It must have looked a bit weird."

"You're telling me. The way Oscar tells the story you ran away from me at the fire and the next thing anyone knows I'm carrying you out of the bathroom unconscious!"

"Oh god. Did everyone see?"

"I guess we'll find that out tomorrow at school. I'm hoping that as we're both new kids no one gives a flying monkey what we do." They instinctively started walking the footpath through the park.

"So, tell me about the name. Shana tells me it's not a nickname."

"It's a family joke. Brutal, no?"

"No, it's nice. Cute. At least it's something. Finley's a bit of a nothing name."

"It's a Scottish-Scandinavian blend meaning 'Fair Warrior'... loosely. Finn is, like, Norse for 'Hero' or 'battle' and Lough is Gaelic for 'White' or 'fair'." Pup's head screamed at her to shut up.

"Wooh, ancestry dot com! How do you know all that? That's so cool... well unless it makes me sound a bit white supremacist?" They laughed. There was that laugh again, the one that had so overwhelmed her the other night. Pup was amazed that she was managing to put one foot in front of the other. He seemed so at ease, just walking and talking, like nothing. Like this guy didn't turn the whole world into a blur. Like he didn't make her feel both weedy and, somehow, violent just by standing close to her.

"So why are you starting mid-term?" She kept her eyes forward.

"Ahh, well, I'll show you mine if you show me yours." Finley joked, making Pup blush, "It's mostly just me and my Dad, but he's doing this program full time so I've come to stay at my aunts. I actually did it before, I stayed here for two terms a couple of years ago." He leaned into Pup and said conspiratorially, "I have a ...complicated family."

"Me too. We travel a lot but I think we'll stay here for a bit so I can graduate. What does you Dad do?"

"Nothing for a while, he was this big cheese business guy when I was a kid but he gave it all up and now he's a bit of a hippie." There were so many things she wanted to ask him but she was afraid he might ask some questions back to her.

"So Shana's Mum is you Dad's sister?"

"Not by blood but they've known each other since they were kids."

"Oh, you guys look so similar."

"Really? I think it's just the hair. Though she's a proper ginger... I'd say mine was just... brownie red." He said with a smile.

"Auburn"

"Auburn, yes." Finley stopped, he looked nervous suddenly, "Pup, I'm going to get this out there now so there isn't all that ambiguity. I haven't been able to get you out of my head since I the other night."

"I'm fine, really."

"No, I mean... I like you." The entire vibrating Pup had been experiencing in his presence suddenly stopped. The world stopped. Not even the leaves on the trees moved in the breeze. Pup felt cold and empty. She looked at him, into his pale blue eyes. He pulled his hand through his scruffy hair.

"You don't know me." In that still moment of emptiness, she realised that he was just a boy. A silly little boy who wanted to hook up with his cousin's friend and he had no idea who she was or the danger and complexity that came with her.

"I know, I know but I'd like to get to know you." He stepped closer to her on the footpath. "Did it quiet all of a sudden?" It had become quiet: quiet and still. Was she doing that?

"I have to go." Pup turned and strode off. You idiot, she thought, it's nothing to do with him, you're part vampire. This isn't a conversation - this is a hunt.

"Wait, Pup!" She was already into the wooded area next to the park by the time he caught up to her. She figured she could cut through the forest and be home in twenty minutes and be eating Duncan's macarons before her Mum even woke up. "I'm sorry, Pup, please, I only meant that I wanted to be your friend... you know, if you didn't want anything else. Jesus, this is embarrassing."

"Leave me alone!" Pup needed to get some more distance between them his smell was suddenly suffocating her, like when the wind rolling off the ocean hits you so hard in the face that you can't take a breath. She scrambled clumsily up a hill once she was well into the tree cover. He was fast though and he pulled at her arm, trying to slow her down. Before she could think she saw herself push him away. She saw the look of shock on his face when he felt the full force of her. He went flying down the bank, his arms stretched out trying to grab something to break his fall. The next moment she was already at the bottom of the bank using her body to break his fall. He crashed into her with his full, verging on six foot, weight. They both lay on the forest floor for a moment - Finley groaning.

"Urgh, what just happened? Are you ok?" The world started to turn again. Pup pulled herself out from under him and leaned over checking him for injuries.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to push you. Are you ok?" He looked up at her.

"Winded I think but nothing's broken." Once he got his breath back he smiled up at her and picked a leaf from her hair. "How did you get to me so fast?"

"What? I didn't." She jumped to her feet.

"Hey, I'm not complaining but one minute I'm falling and the next you're underneath me."

Suddenly, Edward appeared through the trees.

"Pup, what's going on?" His face was thunder. As if he needed to ask, by now he would have read her mind and would know exactly what had happened.

"Nothing...I..." In a flash, Edward was helping Finley to his feet.

"Are you hurt?" It was strange seeing them next to each other. Edward was a few inches shorter that Finley and, if Pup didn't know that he had over a hundred and fifty years on Finley, she would swear that her grandfather was younger than him.

"No."

"Can you make your own way back?"

"Well...sure but.." Edward was already dragging Pup away. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Finley watching her in bewilderment.

The moment that they were over the brow of the bank Edward swung her onto his back ran. It took them just a few seconds to be back at the house and in the living room.

"What on earth possessed you to do this?"

"Back off Edward!" Old wounds between Jacob and Edward began to flair. Jacob sat next to his daughter. Renesmee paced feverishly.

"Can we just give her some space, no one in this room is innocent of reckless behaviour in their life. God knows, I lied to Charlie and Renee about everything when I was Pup's age." Bella had a far away look in her eye as she gazed out of the window.

"I'm sorry" snivelled Pup quietly, "I know I'm a terrible disappointment. I don't know what happened but it won't happen again, I promise." Pup pushed past Edward, up the stairs and into her room. Pulling her suitcase from under the bed she started throwing things into it.

After a few minutes, Edward stood in the door.

"If you're here to shout at me some more, don't bother."

"We're just worried. I'm worried. I can see in your head the feelings this boy brings out in you. Parts of it I understand, I felt them myself but some of them... I don't know…" Edward put his cool hand on hers, stopping her from packing. "When I first met Bella the smell of her made me want to tear her throat out. It was a terrible feeling. I was mad with possessiveness, I was constantly afraid I would hurt her and worst of all every part of me wanted to know and understand her. I know when Bella tells the story of how we fell in love it sounds romantic but, for me it was raw and messy and the scariest thing that ever happened to me."

"This isn't the same." Pup's voice was quiet.

"I know it isn't but, believe me, it's close. You know, my best guess about what you're experiencing... Pup? It's some kind of mix of imprinting and what happened to me with Bella and somehow I think it may have triggered some abilities in you." Pup sat down next to Edward. "I know I was angry before… And rightly so, I might add, but now that I really think about it. I'm proud of you." Renesmee and Jacob appeared at the door. "I mean you're going through so much. These things that are happening to you are so overwhelming, but ... you did really well today. You kept your cool, mostly, and you saved him when he fell."

"I hate this." Tears fell from Pups pale grey eyes again. "I don't even know this boy. We've had one conversation and now he's the only thing I can think about."

"Sucks, doesn't it?" Jacob walked over to the suitcase and started slowly putting her things back into their rightful places. Renesmee gently stepped closer to Pup like she was an unexploded land mine, kissed her on the forehead, sharing with her some comforting memories of how much she loved her, and knelt down at her feet.

"Baby, we don't know what this boy is to you, yet. He might not be your mate, you might not have imprinted, whatever it is... we're here for you... and I think we need to see this through."

"What?"

"Well, it seems like your abilities have just started to emerge. I suggest you continue and see what happens. We'll all be here for you, as much or as little as you need."

"Hold your horses Renesmee, we're here for you, Pup, but we do need to set some boundaries." Jacob looked worried.

"Like what, my Love? Like we have to watch her like a hawk? Like she has to tell us the whole truth the whole time? How hypocritical would that be? How would you have felt if Mom and Dad had hung around on our first real romantic dates?" That shut Jacob up, he looked quite queasy at the thought. Edward and Bella laughed gently.

"I don't want to put you guys in any danger, what about Angela? Isn't she snooping?" Pup blew her nose.

"We'll have to play all this by ear. Maybe Edward and Bella can stay at the cottage and Jacob and I will stay on the Res. Whatever we figure out, it'll be ok."

Duncan and Maude appeared at the door. "We'll be your fake parents for as long as is necessary. You know we both love you like you are our own." Duncan's Scottish burr made Pup feel calmer and more made up to stick it out.

"No fair on the mood control, Duncan." He smiled.

Tomorrow Pup would face Finley again at school. She had no idea how she would explain what happened in the forest, or who Edward was but she needed him. He was almost a total stranger and yet she needed him, and that scared her.


	6. Does a Pup jog in the woods?

"Can I offer some advice?" Jacob was shovelling countless fried eggs into his mouth while he spoke. "Up your cross country training. You love running and it could be good for you."

Pup's Dad was right, she had always loved running on her own. As a young child she had struggled to join in with the physical activities of the rest of her family due to their special abilities. Wherever they were, though, from Alaska to the Mountains in Japan she could always just tie up the laces on her trainers and run. Something about the rhythm of her steps and breath calmed her and she always felt connected to everything around her after a long run. Pup knew she was by no means athletic, in fact, she had never even run with another soul it was something she did for herself.

"Thanks, Dad, I think I'll take up my morning runs again. But it'll have to be tomorrow now, I'll be late for school."

"Well, you know where we are if you need us... oh and..." Jacob tossed her a set of keys. "...We can't have you constantly borrowing Duncan and Maude's cars" Jacob smiled and nodded his head towards the front of the house. Pup bounced outside and there in the driveway was a beat up old red pickup truck. "It was Bella's when she went to school. I know you'll stick out like a sore thumb with it in the parking lot but I did totally remodel it on the inside... safe as houses." Pup was speechless she jumped on him and squeezed him tightly.

"Thank you **so** much, it's perfect."

The first half of the day went without an issue. She did share nearly all her classes with Greg who chatted on about the party and how skillfully Shana had flirted with Oscar and all the gossip from the weekend.

"Isn't Shana's cousin hot?" Greg said, watching Pup over the top of his compact mirror while he applied his lip balm. They had a few minutes left of break and it was raining so they congregated on benches under a covered walkway.

"Isn't he starting school today?"

"Yeah I haven't seen him, though. Ok, we should get to drama, it's miles from here and they're telling us which scenes we're doing for our assessment today."

"Urgh, I hate this, why do we have to be assessed anyway? I wish I could be, like, a props person and get marked on that."

"I love it," Greg said with a flourish of his scarf and sashayed away. "You'll be fabulous, Darling, just take my lead." He was doing his best Elizabeth Taylor impression. Pup threw her apple core at him and laughed.

"Sorry I'm late Mr... " Finley checked a piece of paper "Mr Fennon." Pup took a sharp intake of breath. Great, just what she needed, as if drama wasn't bad enough now she had to endure the heaven and hell that was Finley.

"Not to worry..."

"Finley Salinger."

"Not to worry, Finley Salinger. I was informed we had another newbie, we're dropping you in at the deep end though as we have an assessment at the end of the semester and everyone needs to participate." The class were seated in a circle and Finley shuffled his chair in next to Pup's. She buried her mouth and nose into the scarf her mother had given her in the morning. Renesmee had dowsed it in some of her favourite essential oils so it smelt amazing. It was clever and thoughtful, though not entirely effective. He shot her a nervous look, the best she could do was blink warmly back and took a deep breath of jasmine and peppermint from her large cotton scarf.

"Pup and Finley, seeing as you're both new I've put you together and if you need extra help just let me know." Mr Fennon handed them some stapled pages. Pup struggled to put together the words to adequately protest this pairing. "Now off you go into your groups and read through your pieces."

Once tucked away into a corner of the auditorium Pup tried to preempt the interrogation.

"Sorry about yesterday. That was my parents ... friends... son... he thinks he's... well, he's bossy, that's for sure."

"S'ok. So what's the play about?" His voice sounded different, flat. He busied himself flicking through the pages. "Yikes... am... am I playing Achilles? It seems to be the only male character on our pages."

"Yeah, so in this play This king guy tricks his daughter into coming to the front line of a war by telling her she is going to marry Achilles when really he's going to sacrifice her to the gods... I think...yup, we got one of the last scenes in that play. I think Achilles has found out what happened and is trying to help her but they both realise it's too late. Urgh! Why do we have to do this? I told him I'd do all the tech stuff but he wasn't buying it."

"There is no way round this... it's going to be turbo awkward. Even if you hadn't totally rejected me yesterday."

"It's just, you really don't want to get to know me."

"Holy... I'm getting the 'it's not you, it's me' thing and we never even dated." Pup was starting to feel panic rising in her. She was making things worse.

"I wish I was better at this."

"Can we just read and get on with this? I'm not sure I could take getting rebuffed by you again, Pup." She could feel her throat close up like she was going to cry or scream but then she noticed his backpack with some mud encrusted sneakers poking out of the top.

"Do you run?"

"What? Yeah, cross country."

"Come running with me tomorrow? I know some great trails through the woods and it's beautiful in the morning." He gave her a long stunned look and then, slowly, dimples appeared again and he was smiling.

"Oh yeah? Pup Cullen-Black you are an interesting young lady, I'll give you that. Where shall I meet you?"

"Well, 6am at the spot where I so rudely pushed you down a hill?" The panic was draining out of her and being replaced by the warmth that those dimples exuded. He laughed.

"You are going to have to tell me how you did that."

**Shana - I can't think of a worse date. Jogging. Urgh.**

**Pup - it's not a date. We just both like to jog so we are both training together.**

**Greg - I mean, you can't wear nice clothes or makeup and running around till your can't breath isn't really conducive of good flirting.**

**Pup - Guys, this isn't a date!**

**Shana - Whatever**

**Greg - Whatever!**

The next morning Pup arrived at the edge of the forest to see Finley already warming up. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail and plaited it while she stretched her legs.

"What's your usual distance?" Finley said, re-tying his laces.

"Not sure the most I did was twenty miles, I think."

"TWENTY MILES!" Finley choked! "What the...! What is that in Kilometres? Is that a marathon? Jeez, are we doing that now because I don't think I can knock a marathon out before school on a Tuesday morning!"

"haha! Relax, I only ever did that once. I thought we'd just take the forest path for half an hour this morning, is that ok?"

It felt good to start running, Jacob was right, breathing in the fresh misty morning air was just what she needed and Finley fell in step with Pup immediately. This was easy, the gentle thump of their sneakers, the forest air on their faces as they travelled deeper into the woods. Best of all, if she kept half a step ahead the air had less 'Finley' in it, which kept her world slightly steadier.

"How are you finding it at Shana's?"

"It's great, their place has always been a second home to me. They're such good people."

"I only met her mum briefly before the party the other night but they seem close."

"They are. She's like a second Mom to me and Shana like a sister."

"You don't have to say if you don't want to but what happened to your Mum?" There was a pause. For a few moments the only noise was the pounding of their feet on the trail.

"My Mom lives in full-time care." More silence "She has... problems that mean she needs to be in full-time psychiatric care."

"Oh. I'm sorry. For how long?"

"Ages. She was always... Dad, used to call it 'vibrating on a different plane', I still don't really understand what that means, but she went into care when I was five." They ran on. Hopping over roots in the path. "You said you'd travelled, where was your favourite place?" Pup took a minute, not to consider the question, she knew the answer immediately but this already felt like dangerous ground.

"We have a place in Japan. It's an island off Japan actually. It... it's so remote it doesn't have a name. We have to take all our provisions with us from the mainland. It's... well it's beyond beautiful, but also when you're there it's like this bubble. Time doesn't matter, it could be any year in history. When you first get there it takes a while to settle in, you get these waves of panic... or at least I do, this panic that I'm missing out or I should be checking the news or something, then, after a few days you get this sort of itchy feeling, like you might have left the stove on somewhere but then you suddenly get this feeling, like this feral thing inside of you just wakes up and a calm washes over you. No distractions, no worries, no civilisation, just you and the mountain and the ocean and nature. It's... well, it's wild."

Finley stopped, he leant his palms on his knees to catch his breath. He didn't seem overly tired, though. He looked up at Pup.

"I have never met anyone even remotely like you, Pup." She cursed herself.

"Sorry, I know I'm waffling on. I'm such a nerd."

"Don't say that." He stepped near her. The world started to judder again, him in pin focus and the rest of the world vibrating. "I know I'm being pushy and intense. It's not actually like me at all. I hardly know you, Pup, but you're" As he took another step closer she felt like she was on the inside of a snow globe being shaken about, "you're like a magnet."

"Finley... wait... please." He was so close to her now that she could feel the warmth coming from his skin but he did stop, he was inches away from her but he stopped still and looked down into her ghostly eyes, pleading. Pleading with her not to reject him again. "I know you think you like me, but if you knew me, the real me, you might feel differently."

"What do you mean?" Hovering over her Pup used all her strength to stay strong, and stay standing.

"I can't explain it. Please. Please know, what you feel... I feel it... I feel it and more. But..." Pup could hardly get the words out. He leant his head in a fraction. His breath on her face. She had no scarf, no protection from it. It was like being hit by a wave of joy and brutality and savage feelings she could not identify. She couldn't resist anymore. "You are going to regret this." She whispered to him before their lips touched. An explosion went off inside her chest. She pulled him to her. All the buzzing and the vibrating just stopped. Everything stopped. The earth stopped turning for Pup and Finley. He lifted his head and smiled at her for a moment before he noticed a leaf suspended in mid air right next to his face. They both looked around and saw that time had really stood still.

"Pup? What's going on?" In that moment the spell was broken and the leaf fell. Pup took his hand.

"Do you think you could bunk off school today and not get in too much trouble?"

"Second day at school... no one will even notice."

"Listen, Finley, you can walk away now. We can be friends and nothing more, we can wave at each other in the corridors and switch partners in drama and you can go on, happy as you've always been - or I can tell you about me. Tell you about my family. If I do, nothing will be the same again. I know how dramatic that sounds but everything will be turned upside down and you will never be able to tell anyone else. NEVER. I'm already putting you in so much danger." He stared at her, wide eyed. "I'm so sorry but it's all or nothing."

He stroked her face, running his finger over her lips. "I trust you, Pup. I know I don't know you but I knew I was yours from the moment you ran away from me like I was garbage at the party." He chuckled. "I know how absurd this sounds but ... you," he spoke slowly and softly "you have my total devotion, no matter who you are, Pup Cullen-Black."

So they sat down on the soft forest floor, still sweating from the run and Pup told him everything. Every story of how her family came to be that she had been told growing up. Of Carlisle and his compassion and fathering of the Cullen family, of how Edward fell in love with Bella while she was till human and how their love nearly destroyed themselves and the whole family, of how Pup's Mother was the rare offspring of a vampire and a human and how her father was a werewolf and imprinted on her when she was just a few minutes old how her brothers were born wolves. She talked and talked and told him all about what it was like at the weekend to meet him, what happened when she fell from the tree and how everything she had done in the last few days had required hours of emotional family meetings to dissect.

Finley sat very still and very quiet and listened with the intensity of a hawk. When she finally finished it was mid afternoon. They sat in silence for a while before he finally spoke.

"So... you don't really know what you are," Pup nodded. "and so far you were just human... ha, **just** human." Pup nodded again. "But when you met me... how did you put it?"

"It was like a bomb went off."

"Right. Right. So, just then you somehow stopped the clock… but you don't know how and you don't have any control over it." Pup nodded. "I don't know what I was expecting you to say... but I was not expecting that... like, at all."

"You can never tell a soul, about any of this. It isn't just you and me that would be put in danger but my whole family and yours and Shana's family. The Volturi wouldn't think twice about illuminating everyone associated with us, not to mention the already strained relationship between the Cullens and the Quileute." He sat in silence again. Then he stood up and pulled Pup into his arms.

"I'll never betray you, Pup. Never."


	7. He's Just a Boy

Pup and Finley sat on the steps to the Cullen house and untied their laces. Finley's pale freckled face was pensive.

"Are you sure about this? You don't have to do it."

"I'm not going to lie to you, I am terrified, but I'm hoping they like me. I mean I'm guessing no one will eat me if they don't, but still, I hope they like me." They pulled off their muddy sneakers and left them by the door and padded up the stairs to the main part of the house. They came upon with the smiling faces of Renesmee, Edward, Bella, Duncan and Maude and the unblinking stare of Jacob.

"Macaroon?" Duncan shoved a plate of brightly coloured treats in Finley's face. Bella swooped in and showed Finley to a seat at the table.

"Believe me, I know how nerve-wracking this is. Just be thankful Rosalie isn't here. Would you like a drink? Juice? You must be starving. Dinner will be ready in about 10 minutes."

"Oh yeah, who will be eating?" Finley said and the Vampires shot each other a look.

"You, me, Mum and Dad" Pup sat down next to him and gave him a reassuring smile. "Duncan's an amazing cook. Hasn't eaten food since the Viking invasion of Scotland but he's a wizard in the kitchen."

"We've all got to have a hobby." Duncan threw in from the kitchen.

"What is Pup to you?" Jacob could not abide the small talk anymore. Finley sat with his mouth open for a moment. "I mean I know she's told you about us and I applaud you for being all calm and cool about it but I don't think my daughter really thought this through when she spilled the beans."

"Jacob." Renesmee tried to sooth him.

"No! This isn't like anything you've seen before Nessie. It's one thing to find out about me but you weren't around when Bella worked out what the bloodsuckers were, it wasn't pretty."

"You can trust me, I wouldn't tell anyone."

"Again I applaud you but you still aren't getting it. Having this secret with us... you're bound into our family. You can't just hang with Pup until you realised she isn't the one for you and move on." Food and drink was being put on the table but Finley could not escape the intensity of Jacob's grilling. "When the Quileute pair up, it's for life and from what I understand from that lot, it's the same thing for Vampires. So I'm guessing what Pup feels for you is going to be permanent. But, you? You're just a boy who met a pretty girl at a party, you can't have any real idea what this means."

"OK, that's enough!" Bella took Jacob by the hand pulling him out of the room.

"No, it's ok. It's completely understandable. Mr Black is right" Finley said softly to the remaining people in the room. "I am totally clueless and, yes I am just a human guy." Pup's heart raced. She placed her hand on Finley's. It was quivering. "I know a seventeen-year-old boy saying 'I never felt anything like this before' means very little to people who have lived so long and seen so much. Teenagers are fickle, I know that. I think, though, if you get to know me you'll see that I'm not like most teenagers."

Pup made her way to where Bella and Jacob were standing on the balcony together, looking out at the evening light on the trees.

"You have to trust her. Trust the genetics. It worked out for us. We've never known anyone to imprint or fall for someone who wasn't steadfast. I've always wondered if we're hard-wired to love people who are suited to this life." It was hard for Pup to imagine how Bella and her father used to be before she was a vampire, but in these moments when she was so soothing and gentle with him she completely understood that they were bonded in a way that could never be undone.

"Maybe you're right, I'm almost scared to ask Duncan and Maude to confirm your theory." They were both silent and Pup stood by the sliding doors, not wanting to intrude on their moment. "What now, though?"

"I know it's a lot to ask," Pup had to speak up " and I've already turned this family on it's head... but could we not do the 'what now's'? The more I'm around Finley, the more I'll understand who I am; the more these talents will develop and we'll be able to make better decisions then. Can we keep all this from... you know who, at least for a while?" Pup had never met any of the Volturi, though she was told that Aro had paid her a visit when she was first born.

Jacob and Bella looked at each other.

"Sure thing, baby. So tonight I can be a regular Dad and scare the crap out of him?"

"No!" Jacob put his arm around his daughter as they walked back downstairs.

They ate and talked and laughed while the sun went down. Duncan called relevant people and used his persuasive skills to make sure no one was worried about Finley's whereabouts. Pup took a shower and changed and Finley did the same, Edward lent him some clothes.

"Do the thing?! Please, Maude?" Duncan and Maude moaned at Pup's request. "They have this amazing party piece where they do a snippet of a dance from every age since Duncan has been alive."

Finley's eyes lit up. Renesmee jostled them to oblige and Jacob set the mood by lighting the fireplace. Duncan stood up and starting picking drums that had been hanging on the walls or sitting decoratively on shelves and handed them to various people and started a mid-tempo beat. He turned to where Maude was sitting and bowed to her, gesturing for her hand. She stood and took his hand and in a flash she spun around him like she was a dandelion seed in the wind - and it began. It started with wild jigs and soon moved into more structured, courtly dances. Duncan was such a large man but when he danced with Maude it was like driftwood in water, pulled by the current with such ease and grace. Maude, of course, was captivating. Her hair bouncing and whirling around, her face so alive with joy.

"Looking at them like this it's hard to imagine that they were ever alone," Pup said quietly to Finley while they watched, "But Duncan existed for hundreds of years without her." They had moved now into a Charleston from the 30's. "The way Duncan tells it, the time before her was like a brutal wasteland."

"I think I'm beginning to understand what he means." Finley said, and he took her hand.

Duncan and Maude had done every decade in the 20th and 21st century and finished with a beautiful contemporary flourish of romantic lifts and spins finishing with Duncan planting a kiss on the end of Maude's nose. Everyone clapped as they sat back down on the sofa. Edward turned to Finley.

"How about you, do you have a party piece?"

"Oh god no! I have nothing like that at all." Finley spluttered. Edward smiled.

"I know the one you've had in your head all day. I could play along on Piano and we have a guitar for you."

"Edward! That is such an ambush!" Though Pup was laughing when she said it but she was cross that Edward had fished around in his head.

Finley looked surprised but could see no way out when a guitar was thrust into his hands. He exchanged some words with Edward about lowering keys and then Finley took a deep breath.

"I can't believe I'm doing this. This song was sung by a woman actually, it's an old song, but I've always loved it..."

"Get on with it!" Duncan heckled. After a moment Edward started some intricate notes on the piano and Finley opened his mouth and in a husky voice began singing 'At Last' originally sung by Etta James. He strummed along on the guitar; it was as if the two had been playing together for years. Pup's body began to vibrate. His voice swung effortlessly around the melody and yet sounded so pained and sad.

_At last my love has come along  
My lonely days are over and life is like a song, oh yeah  
At last the skies above are blue  
My heart was wrapped up clover the night I looked at you  
I found a dream that I could speak to  
A dream that I can call my own  
I found a thrill to press my cheek to  
A thrill I've never known, oh yeah  
You smiled, you smiled oh and then the spell was cast  
And here we are in Heaven  
For you are mine at last_

When he finished there was a respectful silence from everyone. Bella broke the silence by applauding.

"That was... you are so good." Pup said to Finley when they were finally alone, taking in some evening air on the balcony.

"Thinking about it maybe I should have sung the Etta James song 'Trust in me'" He said with a twinkle in his eye. She looked at him, the moon lighting his face.

"Long day." He chuckled. "I'm terrified by you, Finley." He stroked her face. "It isn't just the strength of my feelings for you, though, it's something else. When Bella was human and with Edward it took all his strength not to hurt her. He had been a vampire for a long long time and a vegetarian for most of it."

"Pup you're not a vampire... I saw you have seconds of beef wellington tonight, you're definitely not a vampire."

"Maybe not but the feelings I have when I'm around you. They're not all buttercups and roses, you know." Finley looked concerned. "I probably should have made this clearer earlier. Wanting you seems to go hand in hand with these other feelings, more volatile feelings. I don't feel very in control of myself, as we know, but I get these savage urges."

"Do you want to hurt me?"

"No! I can't think of anything worse, but ... what if ... what if these changes that are happening to me... what if I become more animal, what if I hurt you by mistake?"

"These are a lot of 'what if's' Pup." He traced his finger along her eyebrow, down her cheek and over her mouth. "Whatever is going to happen is unavoidable now." He pulled her closer to him. "Getting to know you? It'll be worth it, I know." He kissed her softly.


	8. One step too far?

It was late when Pup and Finley drove away from the Cullen house. For a while, they drove along in Pup's pickup in silence, only the sound of the warm air-con whirring.

"Put some music on, if you like" Pup offered him a lead for his phone. Finley, who had been staring ahead, obliged and some old soul music trickled from the speakers, reminding Pup of his song earlier that night.

"How do I even pretend to the world that we are just a normal couple at school, to Shana's family?"

Pup glowed. "… couple?"

"Don't be ridiculous," he snorted back with his dimply grin. "Whether you're a fan of relationship labels or, whatever, after the day we had today… you're my girl, Pup. If I'm being brutally honest, I never want to leave your side again… I can't believe I'm even talking like this. You don't know this about me but I'm not like this normally. I've only ever had one girlfriend before and we ended because I moved away and neither of us was broken up by it." Pup laughed warmly at him.

"Oh, so this thing of instantly pledging your devotion and loyalty and what-not… that's not your standard technique?" The headlights bounced off the mist as they wound through the woodland roads.

"I think, at some point, I should get some advice from your… from Bella about the perils of being human in amongst all this … other stuff."

"I mean, you're welcome to but, from all the accounts, she took all of five minutes to become a pest about turning her into a vampire. She hounded the whole family one by one trying to convince them. Edward was adamant that she should stay human and in the end The Volturi and her pregnancy forced the issue."

"Wait, ok so I can understand that she would want to be stronger and, like, an equal with Edward but a) what was the rush and b) why did Edward resist?" Finley shifted in his seat so he was facing Pup. She was finding concentrating in enclosed spaces with him easier now, she still felt like she was being tossed around inside a cocktail shaker but she was getting used to it.

"She felt she was aging, I think, and there was a whole thing when they first got together where another vampire tried to kill her and she suddenly felt very fragile, also… and this is a touch gross for me to think about, but I think it interfered with their relationship... physically."

"Yeah, I can imagine."

"To answer you other question… well, it's complicated but there is a floating theory that never really gets resolved one way or another that vampires don't have souls, that they are these damned creatures, neither alive nor dead. Edward felt he would be doing something terrible to her."

There was more silence between them as Finley absorbed all of this information. They pulled up at Shana's house and sat for a moment.

"Finley, I don't know what any of this means for us. I know it's a lot of pressure for two people that met less than a week ago but I wanted to say that you… were amazing today. I felt sure you would call me a mad woman or make a run for it or something… goodness, there are so many ways this could have been worse, but you … well, it's like you, I don't know, this is going to sound stupid." Finley leant over and brushed Pup's hair from her face. Pup grasped onto the steering wheel as the world spun and she could feel pins and needles in her feet. "Despite my nob of a Dad being so intense, I was watching you tonight and it was like you were this puzzle piece that just … fit. Do you now how extraordinary that is?"

Finley gazed at her for a moment, took in a deep breath and sighed: lost for words. He turned and stepped out of the car, cool air flooded the car. Before he went into the house he tapped on Pup's window. As she lowered the window she looked at his face in the darkness, he leant in and kissed her, softly at first, full of gentle longing but the longing grew and Pup wished there wasn't still a car door between them.

Finally, Finley pulled away and told himself "Be cool Finley, be cool. Go inside and be cool." Then turning back to Pup, "Will you be ok? Safe to drive?"

Pup smiled, though, in reality, she was fighting to breathe. "I think I'll just take a minute… you go ahead, I'll see you tomorrow. Oh, do you want to run? We will actually run this time, I promise."

"Sure, sure. See you at the same spot tomorrow morning." With that, Finley turned and walked to the house.

Pup looked up and saw Shana at her bedroom window. Pup waved, chuckling to herself thinking how she was probably messaging Greg everything as it was happening, but then she noticed Shana wasn't smiling. She just stared at her and then shut the curtains.

The next morning the dew had frosted onto the grass in the park and they wasted no time in taking a brisk pace into the woods. It felt different today, more playful. They skipped over rocks and brambles, sometimes weaving in and out of each other's path. It was quiet but for the occasion giggle from one or both of them and the gentle thudding of their shoes on the forest floor. By the time they got back to the park at the edge of the woods they just had enough time to get to school, shower and change before their first period. Pup barely felt out of breath, every draw of cold morning air into her lungs made her feel stronger. Finley was thoroughly red in the face.

"You go at quite a pace!" He said trying to catch his breath. "Look at you! You look like you just walked up a flight of stairs not sprinting through the hills of Forks. Have you always been this good?"

Pup laughed at him and took him by the hand leading him towards the truck so they would be late for school.

School was long that day. Pup struggled to push thoughts of the last few days from her mind. She didn't see Shana all day and at lunch, neither Greg nor Shana were in their usual spots so she found a quiet corner and did her best to focus on her physics textbook while she chewed lazily on her sandwich. A message came through from Jacob just before the bell went telling her that he and Renesmee were going to the Res for the evening and did she want to come with Finley.

"Fancy coming somewhere with me tonight?" Pup whispered over her play during her last class, drama. "I mean, we both need to do some homework but we can probably fit it in somewhere in the evening. It's just, we're going to the Reservation and I didn't know if…."

"I'm in! Definitely." They spent the rest of the class going through their scene and bursting into hysterical giggling constantly as Finley hammed up the acting for Pup.

Pup had spent some time with her father's side of the family over the years. In fact being anywhere other than the Reservation when they returned to the area had been dangerous for years as there were so many people still alive that knew Bella and the Cullens. The Quileute could never quite be at ease when they were there, though. They had considered Bella part of the family but that changed when she became a vampire. Not to mention the danger the Cullens brought with the Volturi in that lifetime. They felt very uneasy that Renesmee continued to make decisions about her life that affected them so significantly. They had all been deeply worried when she decided to get her high school diploma at Forks. They knew that one day they would have to fight the Volturi as long as the Cullens grew in size and strength and it made Sam and the Pack very uneasy to have no control over that. Not to mention the fact that having the Cullens dropping in and out of the area not only meant that pack members couldn't age but that the young would phase and have the stresses of dealing with their wolf powers.

Despite this, Jacob's children were more wolf than vampire so they were welcome. On this evening, food had been cooked outside, a fire built and groups of people sat and talked.

"Jacob, this is very serious! Pup told this boy without thought or permission. You have always been too rash with our secret, Jacob. You don't seem to grasp that we cannot simply jump on a private jet and disappear if law inforcement came here or even the government, or even just ignorant people with pitchforks!" Sam was red faced with anger. Pup was watching the stand off from across the fire, feeling sick with guilt.

"Sam, I know this and I'm sorry. But I consider what has happened to my daughter to be like imprinting and no one would expect us to keep our secrets from our mates. I know you didn't." Sam's face fell. His wife Emily had died of cancer ten years ago and Sam had, by no means, recovered from the loss.

"I'm so sorry, Sam," Pup couldn't stand by any more she walked over with Finley dragged behind her, "You're right, I didn't consider everything. We have all grown up with the burden of our families' secrets. I should have been more repectful of that. Please consider for a moment, though, when you discovered your powers you had your ledgends and family to help you. When my Mother was born, it was all unknown but she had so many resources and at least one other person this had happened to. My brothers showed their true colours the moment they were born into the world. I, however, have lived a charmed life of a normal girl until I met this guy," she squeezed Finleys hand "I trust him and I think we will all come to find that he lives up to that trust."

There was a pause. Sam looked intently from Pup to Finley to Jacob and back to Pup. "Quite a speech little Pup, I just hope your lanky marshmallow is everything you say he is." With that Sam walked away.

"Well, that went well." Jacob dug his hands into his pockets. "Why don't you two take a walk down the beach for a bit while I try and recreate your little speech for a few of the others." He gave her a quick kiss to the forehead and headed off to find other pack members.

The sun was setting as they walked over the wet sand.

"Please can we not talk about my family for a bit? Tell me about your Dad. You said he was a buisnessman?"

"Yeah, I mean he had his own finance firm and it was pretty successful but it… just didn't work out well…"

"It's ok if you don't want to talk about it." Finley was quiet for a moment and then took a deep breath, as if readying himself for the pain that his past could inflict just by telling it.

"My Mum had always been a little…. 'Unstable' is the word I think people use. She could be so fun and vibrant and throw these amazing parties for Dad's work buddies. But then she could also disappear for days at a time, or lock herself away. She became so sad and overwhelmed and desperate. I could never understand what was going on in her head but occassionally I would get an insight into just how dark it could get in there. Once I found her in the kitchen pulling her little toenail off with some craft pliers."

"Oh god! Finley, that's terrible." Pup stopped him. He stared at the sand as he dug a hole in it with his foot.

"Yeah. Well, Dad's firm sucked so much of his time and energy but then it gave us the resorces to try and help her, I guess. Dad loved her so much, despite all her strangeness and sadness. He wanted to give her whatever she wanted, but her wouldn't give her his time. I was too young to understand, all I knew was that if I waited long enough fun Mum would come back eventually."

"So what changed with your Dad?"

"He was on a trip to schmooze people in Germany and I was staying with Shana's family when Mum tried to take her life." The setting sun lit Finley's face as he talked. There was something so distant and stonelike in the way he talked. "Looking back now it's hard to imagine why Dad left her alone but… there you have it. She was taken to a hospital when she was released from ER and there she has stayed ever since, well, she's been in one hospital or another. Dad knows he did wrong by her. He sold the firm a month after and went to a self-help retreat. He liked it so much he's been hopping from one course to another ever since."

"That's why you travel?"

"Sometimes I live with him but frequently he goes to do a course full time in a place I can't go. Shana's parents already considered me part of the family so… "

Stepping closer Pup ran her fingers through his messy auburn hair. She considered the multitude of people Finley could have turned out to be with the past he had endured but here he was, so strong and open and funny and compassionate, and she felt her heart would burst. She lent up to him on her tiptoes and kissed the single tear on his cheek. He took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply, hungrily.

"Thank god we found each other, Pup. Thank god."

"It's ok. It's ok." Pup comforted him but pulled away as the feeling of whooziness could take over. "It's ok. I'm not going anywhere."

Soft rain started to fall and they started to walk back to the party. They didn't speak but both felt the cool mist fall on heir faces and filled their lungs with fresh night air.

Some people were rushing to take food indoors before it spoiled while other took their time to saunter back to their houses.

In a flash Pup saw a man carrying too many plates of burgers stumble into a small boy by the edge of the fire. The boy lurched forward tripping on the logs used as edging round the flames. Pup saw the child fall face first into the fire up to his waist, instantly screaming in pain. The more he faught to escape the more his small hands pushed into the ash at the bottom of the fire. The flames licked around his form and spread across his legs.

The next moment Pup was snapped back to the moment before that man with the burgers began to walk.

"NO!" Pup screamed out as she tore across the beach. The man looked at her as he stumbled, or he looked at where the sound had come from because Pup was already diving across patio furniture to reach the boy. She threw herself full force at the child and they skidded through the dirt away from the flames just in time for the stumbling man to panic and fling the burgers into the fire and save him self from falling.

The child, shocked and afraid, instantly began to cry and a woman ran over and lifted him into her arms. The woman looked him over and hugged him close to her, turning to a panting Pup, still on the ground.

"Thank you. I saw what you did. I can't believe it... He would have been burnt if it wasn't for you."

"S'ok. Is he ok? I didn't hurt him?"

"He's fine." Jacob and Sam came running over full of questions. Finley caught up and helped the stumbling man.

"Dad, it happened again. I saw what was going to happen. I saw the man knock the kid into the fire… it was awful."

"It was more than that," Finley added, "We were a couple of hundred yards away when the man stumbled and then she was right there."

"It sounds like it's different to the visions Alice gets." Renesmee helped Pup to her feet. "It sounds like you get to fast forward through time a little. I wonder if you can develop it at all."

"One step at a time." Jacob was already readying himself to leave.

They said their thank yous and goodbyes and drove home, dropping Finley off first. He looked tired as the harsh porch light shone down on him. Deep dark circles etched themselves under his eyes and he looked even paler than usual.

"I'm so sorry. Let's just have a study date or something next time?" Pup felt a sudden distance between them.

"Sure. That sounds nice." He replied, vacantly.

"Well, sleep well." Pup kissed him quickly, Finley hardly responded but swayed on his feet a little. With that, he went in and Pup was left with a strange feeling that she did not like at all. Maybe she had pushed his tolerance and understanding too far, maybe her strangness and her world of monsters and her constant closeness with life and death was really too much for him to handle.


	9. A danger to herself and others?

Pup's alarm woke her from a dream of Finley, frozen in time and her, unable to do anything. His perfect freckled face, stone-like as she tried to kiss him back to her, tried to bring him back to life. She begged and pleaded and wept but he just stared through her to something on the horizon. Before she knew it they were falling through the sky. Clouds whipped past and the ground sped towards them. She held her hand out to him but he remained frozen, still looking at the horizon.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and slipped straight into her shorts, t-shirt and running shoes. They hadn't confirmed but Pup felt sure Finley would be at the park waiting for her to run before school and she could shake the dream from her mind and this paranoid feeling that he had been suddenly cold with her after the episode at the Reservation.

She looked forward to it. Here was an opportunity, she thought, to avoid the social conditioning that so many teenagers experience that leads them to become jealous and difficult at the drop of a hat. She had watched enough TV to know that most of that drama and nonsense young people suffered could be avoided by just looking someone in the face and telling the truth.

When Pup arrived at the park she was alone. She waited, warming up at first, watching the entrances, tying and retying her hair, thinking about all the crazy things she had dumped in his lap, about how she had violently pushed him down a hill and the run away without even a sorry, how she had introduced him to her bat poop crazy family just a few hours after their first kiss, how he had opened up about his difficult past, been so vulnerable and just a few moments later she had fled from him to save a kid from a fire. Before she knew it she felt dizzy and she had sat down and pulled her knees to her forehead.

'You think you're so rational and clever' Pup thought to herself, 'but you have taken him for granted and burdened him with more than any person could handle and expected him to come to your every beck and call. You silly little girl.'

She pulled herself from the dewy grass and made her way to school. She would find him there and apologise. They would talk things out and work out how to slow things down and make life easier for him. This would be ok, Pup told herself.

"He's gone," Shana didn't turn from her soldering work but kept her mask down as she spat the words to Pup.

"Wait, what? Gone where?" It was first period, which meant Pup had design class with Shana and today the room was heady with the fumes from the soldering irons. Shana's hair spilled out from behind her safety mask as she made a total mess of connecting a silver ring. "Shana, where has he gone? Please!" Pup felt the heat of panic rise in her throat. Shana finally whipped up her mask and spun round with an accusing glare.

"Listen Pup. I don't know what's going on between you and Finley but he's been through enough and he doesn't need any more drama." Pup's whole body began to feel unbearably hot, more than just the flush of embarrassment. Shana stepped closer. "Finley is like a brother to me. I know you never thought to talk to me about him but let me tell you – whatever it is that you're doing to him, be careful."

The muscles in Pup's arms and back started to spasm. She clenched her jaw shut as if to better protect her from the barrage of confrontation from her new friend but it hardly helps, Pup could feel a volatile feeling welling up inside her.

"He's not the kind of guy you can be all high maintenance with and cling to. Did he tell you about his parents? Did you even think to ask why he lives with us?"

Pup was breathing through her nose but her body wanted to launch itself at the redhead in front of her. "Shana, please."

"I know, I know, little miss perfect. No one thinks they're that nightmare girl that takes a guy and wraps him round her finger and uses him.."

"That's not it, I…" Pup gripped the edge of the wooden worktable to stop her body shaking. What was going on? Her muscles felt like they might move her body for her, like someone or something else was taking over control. Sweat dripped from her brow. She could feel the class turn to watch the spectacle that wouldn't be stopped by a teacher anytime soon as he was in the office getting worksheets.

"Do you know how long it took him to be even ok after what his Mum did?"

"Please stop." Pup could only whisper her words as she held on tightly hoping no one would she the spasms she could feel in her muscles. She felt a vibration in the back of her throat as a low rumbling came, like a growl.

"Shana, go easy." Pup could hear Greg tentatively soothed Shana.

"Shut up, Greg, you haven't got a clue. Pup thinks she owns him now and she's known him, what, all of half a week? I've known him my whole life, Pup! He doesn't need another nut job woman in his life!"

With that Pup watched herself launch at Shana, knocking her to the ground, she saw her hands, one holding her red curls and pulling her head back and one pinning her shoulder to the ground. She was helpless to stop herself as she ripped her teeth into Shana's throat, tearing a piece of flesh out. Blood geezered out and Shana couldn't even scream, her eyes bulged in panic and her hands pawed pathetically at the wound as if it could stop the flow. Pup crouched over her, blood dripping from her chin.

Pup came jolting back to the present, gripping the table side, Shana inches from her face spitting "He doesn't need another nut job woman in his life!"

Pup turned in an instant begging her body to do anything but what she had just seen in her vision. In a millionth of a second Pup had snatched the soldering iron from Shana and plunged it deeply into the wooden worktop. There was a loud bang as the force of the blow split the entire table through the middle. She turned and ran before her body could cause any more carnage.

She burst from the room and tumbled to the ground, she glimpsed the shocked faces of her classmates staring at her as she scrambled to get up. As she sprinted down the corridor she barely knew what she was doing, she was hardly sure if she was running on two legs or somehow on four but before she knew it she was out of the school and tearing up the hill through the trees to the surrounding forest.

The wind whipped the tears from her face. Shana was right, she hated her for the way she had said it but she was right, Finley deserved better. She ran and ran, gathering all the speed she could muster, ignoring the brambles as they tore at her legs through her leggings. She could feel her phone buzzing in her back pocket but she wasn't in the mood for round two with Shana over messenger.

Pup ran and ran not thinking about where she was going; all she wanted was to put space between herself and her life. That terrible mess she had created down there.

"Pup!"

The wind and misty rain stuck some hair to Pup's face and obscured her vision for a moment and a low branch thwacked her hard across the face. She didn't stop, though.

"Pup, stop!" She turned and saw Edward running beside her. His brow furrowed in worry. "Please stop." Before she could stop under her own steam Pup tripped on a raised root and flew through the air. Edward dashed forward and caught her deftly in his arms. Her body slammed against the hardness of his vampire chest knocking all the air from her lungs but he cushioned the impact as best he could and placed her on the ground.

"It's ok, It's ok, Pup, just take a breath."

"You saw? You were in my head?" Pup wailed.

"I did. Pup you don't need to worry. I tuned into Finley. He had to go and see his Mother and he forgot his phone. Ignore that silly girl, her feeling for Finley are so complicated."

"NO, no, she's right." Renesmee, Jacob and Bella had caught up by now. "It's too much to just dump on someone, especially someone who has already been through so much."

"Edward! Tell me what happened, now!" Jacob was rippling with shock. A trickle of blood dripped down Pups cheek where the branch and glanced her.

"Her friend the redheaded female? She made a scene. Pup came very close to losing control and killing her but she didn't, she got out instead."

"You should have seen what I saw, Dad. I ripped her throat out with my teeth. I could taste the blood as her artery exploded in my mouth. Oh god, I think I'm going to be sick." Renesmee was at her side in a flash, stroking her hair from her face.

"You didn't do it, though, my sweet, you fought it and you ran. I'm so proud of you." Renesmee cooed as she stroked her face and showed her the image of them curled up on a bed reading when Pup was small to try and calm her down.

"STOP IT!" Pup pushed herself away from her mother and scuttled across the damp ground.

"That's it! No one can argue that we need to pull her out of school now? She could have murdered someone today." Jacob was trembling as he spoke. "It'd a miracle she didn't do anything that didn't give us away to an entire class full of kids!"

"Wait, Jacob." Bella interceeded. "From the way Edward told it she was able to turn her vision into something that didn't harm anyone, or our secret. Pup, darling, you're a marvel. You really are. Well done. She had a fright, but I'll remind you all that we agreed that we wouldn't punish her for something she refrained from doing. I might also add that only last night she actually used her new and, somewhat unstable, abilities to save a 5-year-old boy from a fire."

Renesmee was trying to inch closer to her daughter like someone might approach a growling, feral cat.

"Bella, no one is disputing that Pup is doing well but the truth is that we all know how dangerous a newborn vampire is not to mention the people who have been hurt in the crossfire of a phasing wolf. We have to think about the safety of the humans." Edward stood up. "I can see it in her head, she feels totally out of control."

"You should give her her privacy, Edward." Bella said and in a moment of concentration, they could all sense that Bella had thrown up her shield preventing Edward's ability to read minds.

"What are you doing, Mother!" Renesmee snapped. "We need to understand what she's going through."

"No, we should trust her. I know you want to help but we can't control her." Renesmee stood and turned to her mother, seething.

"Take. It. Down." Renesmee warned.

"STOP!" Pup was crouched on all fours half screaming half barking looking nothing short of a savage feral beast ready to attack any one or anything near her.


End file.
